Up The Ante For Smokers

September 21, 1985

Without a new law, the 16-cent tax on a cigarette pack will drop to 8 cents next month. Such a cut in a politically popular tax would be absurd, adding more than $2 billion a year to the deficit. Fortunately, House and Senate committees have okayed keeping the tax as it is, and that's what Congress is likely to decide.

Better yet would be an increase. A move to double the tax to 32 cents failed in the Senate committee Wednesday by a vote of just 8 to 10, then wrangling delayed a vote on making it 20 cents.

The case for raising the cigarette tax is compelling. In a new report prepared for Congress, the Office of Technology Assessment has estimated that the total cost of smoking to the economy is at least $38 billion and could be as high as $95 billion a year. Only one-third of the cost is in medical bills. The hidden remainder is in lost output and earnings.

The addiction of most smokers is strong enough to withstand price increases, so keeping the 16-cent tax or raising it will not make cigarette sales plummet. But experts do expect that higher prices would discourage young smokers who haven't started or who haven't smoked long enough to be really hooked.

Usually, calls for Washington to save lives involve more deficit spending. Taxing tobacco is a lifesaver that reduces the deficit. Congress should increase the dosage of this medicine.